I blinked and J is now 31 months. What?!
I thought toddlerhood would be a nightmare (all those stories of “The Terrible Twos'“). But it’s been relatively smooth-sailing (crossing my fingers) and a WHOLE lot of fun.
the first day it felt like fall, we pulled out his dinosaur sweatshirt
J is quite entertaining at 31 months. He’s even more full of life, expression and energy. He’s overflowing of curiosity, brimming with questions. Currently, this looks like a lot of “Why"? I am amazed at how much he soaks in and has learned. I’m also humbled as to how little I seem to know and how much I struggle to answer his Why questions.
At 31 months, he loves ice cream, his current obsessions are dinosaurs and most recently, mummies. We were gifted a collection of National Geographic books from my cousin and one day, he picked up the one on mummies. What started as a mixture of trepidation and hesitancy has now become an infatuation with the book. Last night, J and daddy played “Mummy” where my resourceful husband took some toilet paper and wrapped him up in it. (We saved the toilet paper to use later.)
magnatiles + dinosaurs
One of the biggest developments in our household has been that J is now potty-trained and sleeps in his big boy bed! These are big milestones, people! BIG!
It’s a funny thing, how kids just do things when they’re ready. I had been trying to potty train him for months but one day, he just didn’t want to wear a diaper so I put underwear on him, we went out to a doctor’s appointment, and at the pharmacy, I asked him if he needed to pee and he said yes so I took him to a public restroom and just like that, he went pee outside of the house for the first time!
With sleeping in his big boy bed, we made it a big deal. Leading up to the transition, we stumbled across a book, The Berenstein Bears “A New Baby”. Granted it’s about a new sibling coming into the picture, a majority of the plot was about Small Bear growing out of his bed and getting a new bed. So we ran with it. J helped clean the room and get it ready for the bed, he helped daddy move the bed into the room, we went together to pick out bedding (dinosaurs, of course).
Since learning to sleep on his own, each morning he wakes up and shouts out, “엄마! 아빠! 혼자 잤어!” (“Mom! Dad! I slept by myself!”) It’s really the cutest thing watching him feel so proud of himself.
I’m learning that parenting is a lot of watching and waiting and learning from our children. My sweet, sensitive, compassionate little man has been a source of great encouragement and inspiration - praying for dead bird, praying for mommy and daddy to give him a baby.
This week, I’ll be holding down the fort by myself as Y goes off on an adventure. Part of me is worried but a small part of me knows I should relish one-on-one quality time with my little man. Here’s to a week, just you and me, bud!